Meet the Team: Catie Leary, Content Strategist

Meet the Team: Catie Leary, Content Strategist

Good content isn’t easy, but when it’s done right, it can pack the most powerful punch of any element on your site. Whether you’re trying to optimize your presence in search engine rankings or enhance the overall user experience of your site, content is where it starts.

In the latest installment of our “Meet the Team” interview series,, we introduce you to our content strategist, Catie Leary, who shares a little bit about what she does and what tools and apps she couldn’t do without.

As a Content Strategist, what do you do at Southern Web?

I work across our digital marketing and website project teams on pretty much anything related to content.

For our website development projects, that means guiding our clients through the information architecture and content strategy phases of our project process. This usually involves content audits, content consolidation, sitemap creation, copywriting, editing, and, in the case of our express build projects, formatting all site content to a predetermined theme. Meanwhile, over on the digital marketing team, I develop and oversee the production of our SEO clients’ quarterly content strategies, as well as take the lead on all the email marketing and social media services that Southern Web offers. I also handle all content marketing efforts for Southern Web and WP Site Care (which, YES, means Catie is editing her own “Meet the Team” interview — how meta! 🤠).

What is the most challenging part of your job?

This probably applies to everyone on my team, but because we have so many projects, we really have to manage our time well and stay accountable to our task deadlines and client expectations.

For me in particular, because I work across multiple teams within our company, my co-workers don’t always have a full view of what’s on my plate. Luckily, in true Southern Web fashion, we started using a resource management tool (Resource Guru) that allows my co-workers to “book” my time. This essentially evens out my workload on the day-to-day so that I’m not slammed with 12-hour work days, nor waiting around and twiddling my thumbs waiting for someone to assign me something.

What are some other tools or apps that are indispensable to your work?

Working on a high volume of projects is exciting, but it can be challenging if there isn’t a strong project management infrastructure there to keep you supported and accountable. If you read any of the previous ‘Meet the Team’ interviews, you might be aware of Southern Web’s affinity for handy tools and apps! I, for one, would be lost without our primary team project management software, Teamwork!

A few other tools that I heavily depend on to perform my content-related duties include:

GatherContent– Ah, where would I be without GatherContent? Our team and our clients use this tool to compile and prepare content for site builds. It’s kind of like a souped up version of Google Docs, but with a bunch of other features that allow us to build out sitemaps, customize page templates, and manage editorial workflows.

Grammarly – While I’m usually the go-to person on our team to help out with proofreading and grammar/spelling questions, I’m certainly not perfect! Even the most experienced writers and editors can benefit from a second pair of eyes. Grammarly is like my own personal copy editor.

Rev – I conduct and record a lot of interviews with clients. This ensures accuracy and helps me establish their voice and tone when writing copy for them. It would take me so much time to transcribe these interviews on my own, so I outsource it to Rev.

Buffer – As part of our social media services, we schedule social media posts for clients on a monthly basis. We use Buffer to manage all of these social media calendars.

Canva – If I need to whip up a quick promotional graphic for a newsletter or tweet, I turn to Canva to make it happen.

What do you do to unwind?

Anything that does not involve staring at a screen! Going for a hike, playing tabletop games, lifting weights, making soup, cuddling with my cats…

(But let’s be real, I also love scrollin’ Twitter and binging Netflix.)

Invisibility, Flight or Telepathy. Of these three superpowers, which would you choose and why?

Flight! I think having invisibility or telepathy powers would be a little TMI for me. 😬